News of the day From Across the Globe, March 10

Chronicle News Services

Updated 11:18 pm, Sunday, March 9, 2014

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News of the day From Across the Globe, March 10

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1 Iraq attacks: A suicide car bomber ignited his vehicle at a security checkpoint Sunday in southern Iraq, the deadliest of a series of attacks that killed 42 people, officials said. The violence, which comes a few weeks before scheduled elections, is the latest by insurgents determined to destabilize the country. The blast struck the entrance of the city of Hillah as dozens of cars waited to be searched. The explosion killed 21 civilians and 15 security personnel, police said. Hillah is a Shiite-dominated city 60 miles south of Baghdad.

2 Housing program: Egypt's military chief kicked off a $40 billion housing initiative Sunday to build a million homes in cooperation with a major Emirati construction firm, the first campaign-style move by Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who is widely expected to run for president. El-Sissi hasn't made an official announcement yet but has strongly indicated he will run. The elections expected in April are the first since the military ousted elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July.

3Leader dies: Influential Afghan Vice President Mohammed Fahim, 57, a leading commander in the alliance that fought the Taliban, died of natural causes Sunday in Kabul, officials said. Fahim was the top deputy of Ahmed Shah Massood, the charismatic Northern Alliance commander who was killed in an al Qaeda suicide bombing two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Fahim died a month before Afghans go to the polls to choose a replacement for President Hamid Karzai. Fahim's death could draw some sympathy votes to candidate Abdullah Abdullah, who was also a member of the Northern Alliance and a friend.

4 Pollution: China will tighten environmental legislation and force polluters to pay compensation after renewed blasts of toxic air, the country's top legislator said Sunday. Zhang Dejiang said in a report that businesses were responsible for the environmental damage they caused and must be held to account. January saw air pollution readings about 20 times the amount considered safe by the World Health Organization.

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5 Drug violence: A man killed in a shootout early Sunday with marines in western Mexico was a leader of the Knights Templar Cartel - the same man the government had reported slain in 2010, officials said. Prosecutor Tomas Zeron said the identity of Nazario Moreno González was confirmed by fingerprints. The shootout happened near Apatzingan in Michoacan state, where the Knights Templar have ruled through stealing, killing and extortion. Earlier, authorities thought Moreno died in a battle with police in 2010, but his corpse was not found.

6 Syria bombing: A Canadian freelance photographer was killed in Aleppo on Sunday after a crude bomb exploded near where he and firefighters were standing, activists and his sister said. Ali Moustafa and seven others died after government aircraft dropped two explosives-laden containers in a rebel-held area. His sister, Justina Rosa Botelho, confirmed her 29-year-old brother's death after activists sent her a photograph of his corpse. Moustafa was born in Toronto to Pakistani and Portuguese parents. Also Sunday, 128 relief organizations called for immediate humanitarian access to civilians throughout Syria to help relieve the suffering caused by the civil war.

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